Friends

Everybody wants to find a really good friend or two, and while I do have a some very wonderful local friends, I've also been blessed with a small group of literary besties. It has been my good fortune to be able to meet and hang out with these  fantastic people at events I attend. This weekend I attended such an event when I participated in the Marion Library's Read Local Author Fair, and I was thrilled to see my fellow Ohio author bestie Deborah Bence Boerema, proud book mother of The Innkeeper's Dog.

Deb and I met several years ago through our publisher and have since formed a close bond. We are sounding boards for each other when things seem bleakest. We are cheerleaders for each other, encouraging continued growth in our writings. And we even share the occasional recipe. Deb's Cinnamon Raisin English Muffin Bread is divine!

Deb and I usually only see each other in the fall and once in a blue moon in the spring, but this year we are planning on attending Nerd Camp this July, and I can hardly wait. Not only will we connect with teachers, illustrators, and other authors, this will be the first true test of our friendship__ we will stay overnight in a hotel. Here's hoping that neither of us snore.

At this weekend's event, I also met my social media friend Meghan Colvin for the first time. I can already tell that Meghan is going to be part of my literary bestie group which includes Deb, author Laura Eckroat, author Lori A Moore, author Lisa Tortorello, author Phyllis Griggs, author/illustrator Mark Wayne Adams, author Gail Nall, author/illustrator David Biedrzycki, author Paul Czajak, and author David A Kelly.

 

 

 

 

This group of fabulously talented people makes me want to be a better writer, they cheer me on, they encourage me not to give up, they help me revise and polish my work, they put up with damp shoulders when I need a good cry, they give me tips for achieving better rhyme when mine stinks, and they never ever tell me I talk too much even if they're thinking it!

And so of course, this week's reading selection from my library pile is about (drum role please...) friendship. I know, shocking isn't it. The book I read is Friends to the Rescue by Suzanne Chiew. It is a beautiful story of Badger, Mouse, Hedgehog, Rabbit, and how they work together to help rescue their new friend mole. The illustrations are colorful and quite adorable to boot.

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. Also be sure to drop by Literacy Musings Mondays for more great blogs as well as my personal website Fun With Aileen where you will find more on reading, writing, and my very own chapter and picture books. And finally, you can find me on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.

Rain, Snow, Mud__ It Has To Be Spring

Here in Ohio we started spring in the normal fashion with rain, rain, and then a little bit of rain. There were a few sunny days in-between, but on the rainy days, Emily and I whiled away the hours playing Uno and Jenga. And after the long, harsh, cold winter, we were happy to welcome spring rains. And then it happened, it snowed one last time. Yep, it was almost seventy one day and it was thirty and snowing the next.

As I looked at all the beautiful daffodils that had bloomed just days before, I saw their poor faces bowed to the ground with the weight of the frozen, fluffy precipitation heavy on their slender backs. I worried that the cold would kill them, but for the most part, they survived and returned to their upright positions, sunny faces looking skyward.

What turns out to be so interesting about this is the first book I picked for review this week had similar occurrences. It was called Mud Flat Spring and it was the story of all the creatures in  Mud Flat and the different things each group did when spring arrived. Some did the happy dance of spring. Some went back to bed. Some looked at the beautiful flowers. But then__ it snowed. Few of the characters seemed to be bothered much, and they went about enjoying the snow as much as they had the beginning of spring. Some of the animals bemoaned the fact that the snow ruined spring, but my all time favorite line from the book had to be when one of the characters replied, "when this snow melts, we'll have spring all over again." What a lovely way to look at it!

The second book I read was a book of poetry since we still have a week left to celebrate National Poetry Month. It was called A Whiff of Pine, A Hint Of Skunk, A Forest Of Poems. These poems actually celebrate all four seasons of the year, but Eau De Forest, A Woodsy Cologne reminded me of how we spent Easter Sunday afternoon. We did a little geocaching, did a little hiking at Gorman Nature Center, and had a little picnic lunch. The hiking and the geocaching offered me the opportunity to take some pictures along the muddy trails. I did indeed partake in a whiff of pine, but thankfully not of skunk.



Geocache Finds

A Blue Bird House
 

One of our geocaching sites was at a very small and very old cemetery. Cemeteries happen to be one of Emily's favorite geocache spots and she is always curious about the people who lived so long ago. On this particular trip, we saw some small rounded head stones that had the names on the tops instead of the sides. Some were so worn that we could barely read the names, so Emily decided to make a grave stone rubbing. Her constant curiosity reminded me of the third and last book I read titled  A Chick Called Saturday which happens to be by my very famous UK friend, Joyce Dunbar. 

 

Head Stone Rubbings

 Momma chicken has seven little chickens, each one named for a day of the week. All of the chickens behave well accept for Saturday. It isn't that Saturday is bad, it's just that he is full of curiosity. Saturday finds himself in all kinds of trouble until he finally figures out what he is meant to be when he grows up.

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Join me next week for another exciting episode, same crazy time, same crazy channel. And feel free to drop by my personal website, Fun With Aileen, any day of the week for even more on reading, writing, my very own early grade chapter book, Fern Valley, and my soon to be released sequel, Return To Fern Valley, coming summer of 2014! I'm also on twitter @AileenWStewart if you want an extremely brief glimpse into my days.